Boohoo to Leicester

As lockdown was eased in the UK it was time for the residents of Leicester to go ‘boo-hoo’. Whilst everywhere else you could go out to a pub or restaurant for the first time in months, or have your hair cut, Leicester faced a second lock-down. Businesses due to re-open for the first time could not do so, those who had opened a few weeks ago now had to close again. People also faced restrictions in seeing their friends and family.

This was due to reports of a spike in Covid-19 cases in the city, way above the national average. These statistics made a second lockdown inevitable. What was the reason for this spike? The Guardian newspaper publicised a report from an organisation called Labour Behind the Label, which traced the source of COVID-19 cases to the city’s poorly regulated garment industry. Based at 1,000 sites across Leicester, including home-working, the report revealed a picture of sweatshops paying below the minimum wage and with scant concern for the health and safety of its workers. A scene which might not have been out of place in the 19th century was being revealed in the 21st.These factories were working at full capacity during the lockdown, workers were made to work whilst ill and not reporting their ill health. This was whilst these companies were taking advantage of the government’s furlough scheme. The majority of the workforce in the garment trade is from Leicester’s BAME community, a third of them estimated to have been born overseas.

This race to the bottom by the garment trade was driven by a fashion brand called Boohoo which has done very well out of the coronavirus pandemic. As high street retailers had to shut their doors, Boohoo as an online platform enjoyed a growth in its sales, market value and profits.  It had a good lockdown. The victims were those in the garment trade who got sick, working in unsafe conditions, whilst Boohoo drove down the prices of its products by driving down wages and breaking safety rules. Many could have spread the virus to members of their families and communities.

However, finally all citizens of Leicester became victims as they faced another lockdown. This is the consequences of poor regulation of an industry which was allowed to get away with breaking the rules. Cuts to local public health have meant that Health and Safety Executive inspectors were few and far between. As the Report says, this was not just an unscrupulous employer but the inevitable outcome of the current fashion business model and lack of regulation of pricing and purchasing practices. The Victorians finally came to see that public health was a matter for all and for government, not to be left to the whims of individual employers. Will that lesson be learnt again?

Barbara Humphries (Ealing Southall CLP)

The full report can be seen here:

https://labourbehindthelabel.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/LBL-Boohoo-WEB.pdf